Republicans want schools to block social media or lose internet funds
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday are proposing legislation to block children from using social media in school, preventing access to the platforms on poorer schools' networks that receive federal broadband subsidies, the latest in a growing crop of bills to bar younger users from sites such as TikTok and Instagram.
The measure illustrates how policymakers are turning to a broadening and increasingly aggressive arsenal of tools to try to restrict children's online activity amid concerns about their safety.
Led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), the bill would require that schools prohibit youths from using social media on their networks to be eligible to for the E-Rate program, which provides lower prices for internet access.
Discounts for support depend on the level of poverty and whether the school or library is located in an urban or rural area
The E-Rate program allows schools and libraries facing poverty conditions in rural and urban areas to receive significant federally funded discounts on their internet service - an effort to address gaps in broadband connectivity referred to as the "homework gap."
While the program is broadly supported by Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the Federal Communications Commission and some prominent Republicans, top GOP congressional leaders including Cruz and conservative activists have lashed out against it as a form of wasteful government spending.
Under the existing program, schools and libraries are ineligible to receive its benefits unless they certify that they have an "Internet safety policy," including protections against child pornography or other obscene or harmful material.
The new bill would additionally require that recipients of the program set rules limiting how much screen time students are assigned to partake in as a part of their schoolwork. The restrictions would also apply to recipients of a separate federal subsidy program tucked into a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package approved by Congress in 2021, known as the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
"Addictive and distracting social media apps are inviting every evil force on the planet into kids' classrooms, homes, and minds by giving those who want to abuse or harm children direct access to communicate with them online," Cruz said in a statement.
The bill adds a new wrinkle to the debate around children's online safety in Washington, where lawmakers have separately introduced bills to ban children under 13 from accessing social media altogether and to require those up to 18 to get parental consent to go on the platforms.
The campaign has gained steam amid building bipartisan concern over the potential negative mental health impact social media platforms can have on younger users.
Digital rights groups have spoken out against those efforts, warning that cutting children off from social media would do more harm than good by limiting their ability to interact online and access positive resources and activities, particularly for marginalized groups.
Republicans are unveiling the bill a day before the FCC is scheduled to take up a regulatory proposal that would expand E-Rate eligibility to apply to WiFi on school buses.
Last month, Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) urged the FCC's newest commissioner to oppose the plan, writing in a letter that it "would not only violate federal law but also duplicate programs across the federal government."
The two Republicans, whose committees hold jurisdiction over the E-Rate initiative, said the program effectively subsidies unsupervised use of apps such as TikTok and Instagram by children.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in May called extending the program's eligibility "a practical step we can take that is consistent with the history of the E-rate program."
"This commonsense change could help kids who have no broadband at home," she said.
The FCC's Thursday meeting will mark the first time it has convened publicly since Democrat Anna Gomez was sworn in as a commissioner last month, restoring the five-member agency to full capacity and giving it a Democratic majority for the first time under President Biden.
The shift is poised to unlock the agency's Democratic agenda, including efforts to broaden internet affordability programs and to restore broadband regulations such as the Obama-era net neutrality protections.
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